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Post by Wiswell on Oct 29, 2014 11:36:25 GMT -5
Yeah, the CSU packed house scared them too.
Agree, that the trouble will be because of the competition, not the environment. What also scares me - just one day of match prep. Monday would have been rest, Tuesday practice/travel. Purdue got an extra day of prep + no travel. I will say for the 10th time, Wednesday matches suck:
"Hey, let's go to Purdue. Oo, oo oo, instead of driving 2 more hours to Bloomington that night, let's go back to Madison, and fly to Bloomington 3 days later. Yeah, that sounds like a very efficient plan!!"
As for other discussion, you do realize that if PSU doesn't win the Big Ten, whomever wins, be it Illinois, Purdue, or UW or even OSU it will be because of the "unbalanced schedule" and the "league being down" etc., right, not because they had the best record?
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 12:03:21 GMT -5
It will be interesting to hear what Sheff has to say at the end of the year about this schedule. You get the feeling from his presser remarks he not willing to pass judgement until he tries it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 12:06:10 GMT -5
If you are a meathead, you probably are not a student at Purdue. Just sayin'.
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 12:18:52 GMT -5
As far as this particular badger team is concerned, the biggest problem with being away is the logistics, as gobucky and Sheff himself point out, and the effect of the crowd on the play of the opposing team, and rainbow points out. The badgers, if anything, actually seem to play better when there is an opposing crowd involved. It's a personality thing...They really love the energy coming from the crowd and the other team. We've played our best volleyball on the road - at CSU and Minnesota. The Illinois match we played pretty well as well - certainly on par with home matches. I didn't feel we played great defense in the northwestern match, but we were on fire offensively.
I still say, in all honesty, the best way to get this badger team to play flat is to play in front of an empty gym. Of course that takes away the positive for Purdue, so I dunno how it works out. Whether being away is a net positive for the badgers depends on how elevated the boilermakers are by their crowd.
You do wonder how much a really long spell away from home may drag on the team - what with all the travel and inconvenience. I don't expect to see it at the beginning of the road trip, but it could show up at the end. It's a good prep for the NCAAs though.
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 12:22:26 GMT -5
If you are a meathead, you probably are not a student at Purdue. Just sayin'. One can act like a meathead, and not actually be one.
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 12:23:29 GMT -5
That said...I like fan involvement at places like Holloway and the atmosphere it brings, as long as it stays respectful.
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Post by bucky415 on Oct 29, 2014 12:47:12 GMT -5
I think the Badgers will win by doing what they normally do, being in system more than their opponent and slowing the other team down enough to win. It won't be easy, but I think they will prevail in a close match.
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 13:05:20 GMT -5
So what do we think the strategies of both teams will be? I really think this is the kind of match where strategy may be the real determining factor, cuz both sides will be very competitive.
UW has employed a very low error offense this year. I know Shondell said they have a low error offense during intermission at the IL match, but the stats indicate that Purdue are run of the mill in the B1G in terms of hitting errors/set at 5.5. I get the impression that they have had a few too many service errors too. UW by contrast is a completely different animal from the rest of the B1G in this regard. Averaging only 4 HE errors per set. That's down more than 1/s from last year and almost 1/s or more less than the rest of the B1G. In part that is the abundance of options and Carlini's improved service and decision making, but also Ellen Chapman has a ridiculously low error rate of less than 8%, which is why I think she so many sets from Carlini even though she has a low hitting percentage. It's a strategic choice to make teams earn their points against our defense when Carlini doesn't have great options. Interestingly we've also greatly reduced our service errors from last year by almost 1/s. Sheff has been tweaking that balance between aggression and control across the offense.
Last year UW targeted the Purdue libero in SR, to pretty good effect. IL did the same thing last week for stretches of the match. I'm not sure what they do this year. I get the impression that Wisconsin will set up their defense try to shut down the outsides, as Purdue doesn't use the middle much for some reason, even though they have good players there. Sheff will hope the service game keeps Purdue OOS enough that they can't adjust frequently enough. IL seemed to be pretty good at that.
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Post by kubricks on Oct 29, 2014 13:54:12 GMT -5
Purdue and all other Big teams should have the same strategy used by Penn State. Don't serve or hit to MOREY. She only had 9 digs total in the PSU match. The question is why haven't other teams been doing this? Penn State targeted Bates and Carlini on both the serve and their area of the court......and it worked.
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Post by badgerbreath on Oct 29, 2014 14:17:54 GMT -5
I think it dangerous model to your approach too close to the PSU match. If you go back and watch that match, you will see that PSU got a lot of points OOS. Badgers just didn't read the situations that well on defense. That includes Morey. We did a lot of other things wrong that we haven't done nearly as much since that match, like not covering hitters and blockers, serving too conservatively etc. I agree that Penn State was good at not hitting where UW was trying to funnel them. A couple things have changed/are different, though. First, the block has gotten much better, so it's a little harder to do that. Second, the connection between our block and floor defense has gotten better over time. In fact, communication as a whole has improved markedly. Third, Bates has really upped her serve receive game, and she has become more resilient from what I can tell. As for Carlini, seems everybody serves to her when she is in back row. It's a no brainer, but it just hasn't been a game changer lately. A final consideration, other teams just don't serve as well as PSU.
I will agree...it seems odd that teams serve to Morey. Nebraska did that some. I'm not sure what it gets you.
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Post by Wiswell on Oct 29, 2014 14:28:32 GMT -5
I would target Thomas or Morales on serve receive if I could. I don't think serving to Carlini is dangerous; she'll just pass to Thomas.
The only thing I can guarantee is that the winning coach will be from Muncie.
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Post by volleytology on Oct 29, 2014 14:31:43 GMT -5
I would target Thomas or Morales on serve receive if I could. I don't think serving to Carlini is dangerous; she'll just pass to Thomas. The only thing I can guarantee is that the winning coach will be from Muncie. Serving to Carlini ? Did I miss the joke ?
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Post by rainbowbadger on Oct 29, 2014 14:47:33 GMT -5
I would target Thomas or Morales on serve receive if I could. I don't think serving to Carlini is dangerous; she'll just pass to Thomas. The only thing I can guarantee is that the winning coach will be from Muncie. Serving to Carlini ? Did I miss the joke ? I haven't noticed that. LC is typically screened out of serve receive. They do hit to her, though. A lot. But again, we're not really out of system because LC just passes to Court.
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Post by volleytology on Oct 29, 2014 14:59:50 GMT -5
Serving to Carlini ? Did I miss the joke ? I haven't noticed that. LC is typically screened out of serve receive. They do hit to her, though. A lot. But again, we're not really out of system because LC just passes to Court. She doesn't serve receive, she's the setter; they literally can't serve it to her--what am I missing ?
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Post by BoilerUp! on Oct 29, 2014 15:09:00 GMT -5
Generally for these players, the brighter the lights, the better they do. If they're in trouble, it's because of Nichol and Drews and Jones and Cuttino, not because of a bunch of 20-something meatheads screaming "Boiler UP!" over and over. My first reaction to this was: "Am I sexist because I am offended that you called some very nice young ladies, 'meatheads' ?" After reading some others replies, I agree. You are not likely to find many "meatheads" at Purdue. Nerds, maybe. The Block Party student group has distinctive cheers for every part of the match choreographed, so you may hear "Boiler up!" from me; but, you will hear a lot more from them!
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